Is it ethical to genetically enhance our children's intelligence? Not at all! Why? Here are my three reasons that explains why we should NOT artificially enhance our children's smartness: to prevent a bigger socioeconomic gap between the poor and the rich, to instill diligence in our children, and to help children appreciate their own accomplishments.
Manipulating children’s genes to make them smarter has the potential to increase the gap between the poor and the wealthy in today’s society. Today’s society places heavy emphasis on intelligence, and the people who have high level of intelligence occupy the white-collar jobs that pays better than most blue-collar jobs. The children who had their intelligence genetically enhanced will therefore have more opportunities to obtain a white-collar job and receive a higher income than those who have not had their intelligence artificially enhanced. The cycle will then repeat, and the genetically modified parents, whose jobs pay better than those with the blue-collar jobs, will be able to afford to increase the level of intelligence in their children, whereas the parents who did not have their intelligence enhanced will not have enough money to help their children compete against smarter, genetically modified children. This phenomenon will inevitably lead to a large gap between the poor and the wealthy and may even divide the population into two groups: genetically enhanced group comprised of wealthier part of the population and the group without any genetic changes comprised of the poorer part of the population. Aside from the socioeconomic gap, manipulating the children’s genes also threatens to eliminate diligence in children.
Artificially improving our children's intelligence will make it harder for our children to learn diligence. Children who have genetically modified intelligence will encounter fewer problems, especially in academics, than those with unmodified intelligence. This will give genetically enhanced children less opportunities to learn from their mistakes and problems, and as adults, they will face the same type of problems and not be able to surmount them. For example, artificially intelligent children will require less time to study for tests and to complete homework. When they mature and face more arduous, difficult tasks, they will easily give up because they will not have the diligence and resilience to complete the tasks that the children who have already acquired diligence could endure and complete. By enhancing our children’s genes, we are not only depriving them of diligence, but also their appreciation for accomplishments.
Lastly, genetically enhancing children diminishes their ability to appreciate accomplishments and overcoming challenges. Children gain their confidence and self-respect through solving any types of problems, from a math problem to a relationship problem, by themselves. If children are given intelligence and do not have the chance to resolve issues with their own skills and intelligence, then they will realize that their ability to complete tasks easily and quickly is not because they are innately smart, but because their parents have modified them. This may lead to depression, and even worse, lack of confidence and ownership. Destroying children’s sense of confidence and ownership will discourage children from taking risks and may lead to self-doubt.
In conclusion, I strongly believe that genetically enhancing children’s intelligence will have adverse effects on both the children and the society. Although genes may prove useful in treating diseases like diabetes in the future, they must not be used to improve a human trait, like intelligence, that should be diligently learned.
